shoes. try to couch over there, larry. >> gretchen: have a great weekend, everyone. we'll see you with larry gatlin monday. country music song in there somewhere, huh? martha: quite a few. bill: the final faceoff before the pivotal iowa caucus. how do the republican candidates measure up after the last chance to win the hearts and minds in the hawkeye state? the current average putting all the polls together, iowans favorite newt gingrich at 26%. romney at 17 1/2. ron paul at 16 1/2. that could all change maybe this weekend or maybe not. good morning, everybody. about 18 days from the caucus. how are you doing today? martha: i'm great. how are you doing? bill: i'm doing well. went to bed around midnight. martha: why did the debate end so late?

it was very interesting. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. they were all trying to look as presidential as possible above the fray. they turned their fire back on the administration for the most part. take a look. >> i believe i can debate barack obama and i think in seven, 3-hour debates, barack obama will not have a leg to stand on trying to defend a record that is terrible and a ideology that is radical. >> our think's america is in decline. it is if he is president. it is not if i'm president. this will be the american century. >> he put his re-election overadding jobs and making the united states energy independent. >> the main problem the government is too big and debt is too big. you have to cut spending. you have to get people coming together. they have been coming together to increase spending for decades. we have to get them to come together to do the opposite. >> the job we have as the american people to fuel your future. we have no choice. our economy has hit the

wall. i want to get rid of the heroin-like addiction to imported oil. >> that is what this plan was all about from day one. >> each one. these debates. i like these debates. i hope obama and i debate a lot. i will get there early. bill: that is just a sample from last night. now the field goes into the final push for the official contest of 2012. what is next for them with 18 days to go? carl cameron up early, sioux city, iowa. good morning to you. you learned something new about mitt romney. what is happening there? good morning. >> reporter: sure. last night after the debate mitt romney and his team were showing a great great deal of confidence. there seems to be indication they have seen polls with newt gingrich's slippage underway and romney reasserting himself as the establishment candidate with the best organization to sustain a long campaign and win the nomination. this morning he underscored that with the endorsement of nikki haley, the first-term positive of south carolina.

the first-ever female governor of the palmetto state. a influential and powerful voice in the first in the south primary. she is a tea party favorite and on fox news this morning she said she will endorse mitt romney. >> i want someone not part of the chaos that is washington. what i wanted someone who knew what it was like to turn broken companies around. someone who had proven results by improving a failed olympics that ended up being a great success story. someone knows what it is like to make a decision and lead, not just make a vote. and mitt romney is that person. >> reporter: nikki haley endorsing mitt romney. romney last night as you showed in some of those sound bites, most of the candidates were spending a great deal of time beatings up on president obama. romney was given a number of opportunities to criticize newt gingrich. those not to rehe pete he hadly and often turned questions into further attacks on president obama. listen to this. >> a strong america is the

best ally peace has ever known. this is president, that the spy drone being brought down, he says pretty please? a foreign, a foreign policy based on pretty please? you got to be kidding. this is president who fundamentally believes this next century is the post-american century. perhaps it will be the chinese century. it is wrong. it has to be the american century. america has to lead the free world. [applause] and the free world has to lead the entire world. >> reporter: romney was challenged about a number of his changing positions on social issues over the years but not by newt gingrich and not by most of his other rivals. pretty much from the questions. there was lots of criticism. newt gingrich, not so much of mitt romney last night, bill. bill: romney and gingrich not really going after each other. a lot of folks frankly expected that. what's up? >> reporter: absolutely. a couple of things. there is a last minute fear amongst candidates before the iowa caucuses if they go

negative, particularly the top couple there are self-inflicted wound that come with that and backfire problem that let other candidates rise. ron paul and rick santorum show a little movement in polls. romney and gingrich pulled their punches. last night on "hannity", conceded skirmish earlier this week who made the most money and whether give salaries and earnings back, listen to newt gingrich acknowledging he kind of lost a battle with mitt romney over that earlier this week. >> there was a very brief moment where frankly, he got under my skin. >> yeah. >> and i responded in a way that made no sense, doesn't fit my values and made some references to bain where i said publicly he is a good manager. he a good businessman. but, you know, he got that round. if you're scoring round in boxing i give that round to mitt. >> reporter: so there was plenty of fisticuffs. who thought there hadn't been enough and want their

candidates to get tougher comes the difficult time for many of them. the debates out of the way the negativity comes. after the debate was underway, flyers started appearing under windshield wipers. the nasty attacks begin in earnest because they can't be called out on a national debate stage. these are attacks on newt gingrich for a whole host of things. clearly underhanded stuff to bring out front-runners will accelerate. bill: we're see how big the crowds are for each candidate the next 2 1/2 weeks which will tell us a lot. thank you, carl cameron. sioux city, iowa. martha. martha: how did we get to the point where we put so much focus on the iowa caucuses? they became the first key step to the nominating process in 1972 as a way to encourage grassroots participation and essential coverage for candidates before the big new hampshire primary and boy have they done that. each of the state's 1784

precincts have their own caucus every presidential cycle. by 2008 the 16% of the state's voters were taking part in these caucuses. that is a big number. bill: foreign policy was a hot topic last night. here is rick santorum on his plan for iran. >> we need to make sure that they do not have a nuclear weapon and we would, should be working with the state of israel right now. we should be use covert activity and should be planning a strike against their facilities and say if you do not open up those facilities and not close them down we will close them down for you. [applause] bill: already this morning this breaking news out of moscow. we'll get to that too as it relates to iran's nuclear program. meanwhile a senior military official warning that iran claims it will hunt down other u.s. drones if they continue to violate iranian airspace. martha: this is one of the biggest moments early on in the debate last night a fired up michele bachmann tried to basically put newt

gingrich kind of on the ropes over his relationship with fannie mae and freddie mac. she criticized him for the consulting fees that he got from the government backed mortgage company. take a look at some of this and we'll talk about it. >> after the debates we had last week poe at this time toe fact came out and said everything i said was true. they said speaker gingrich took $1.6 million. you don't need to be within the technical definition of being a lobbyist to see be influence pedaling with senior republicans in washington, d.c. to get them to do your bidding and the bidding was to keep this grandiose scam of freddie mac going. that is something that our nominee can't stand for. we have to shut down these government enterprises and we've got to end them and i think that's shocking that he is saying that. >> can i say two things. >> speaker beginning rich, quickly. >> okay. want to say two things. first my policy is to break

up both fannie mae and freddie mac. not anything like she just described. second i want to state unqifly for every person watching tonight i never once changed my positions because of any kind of payment. the truth is, i was a national figure who was doing just fine, doing a whole variety of things including writing best-selling books, making speeches and the fact is, i only chose to work with people whose values i shared and having people have a chance to buy a house is a value i believe still is important in america. martha: interesting on some levels, that exchange. fox news contributor byron york, chief political correspondent for the "washington examiner" joins me now. byron, that was the toughest moment i thought last night for newt gingrich. >> it was his lowest moment of the debate and, let me tell you, carl was talking earlier how mitt romney passed up several opportunities to criticize newt gingrich, the romney campaign loved it when michele bachmann went after newt gingrich and, we should

say that the website, politifact which representative bachmann cited had all her facts straight, came out said, no we never said she had all her facts straight but it was pretty damaging to newt gingrich. martha: this issue of fannie mae and freddie mac, newt gingrich is most vulnerable on this during the gop process. this sort of doesn't sit well a with a lot of conserve he was interested to this extent in consulting with them. see a little more piece of sound from newt gingrich on this. >> i won't step back from the idea we should have a goal helping as many americans as possible capable of buying homes. martha: that is big question raised by conservatives. should everybody out there be given the opportunity to own a home and was that essentially one of the issues that caused so many problems? >> well, a lot of conservatives do blame fannie and freddie for a large part for the financial crisis because they gave so

many mortgages to so many people who could not afford them. so that, you're right, that is absolutely a hot issue in the republican race. the other issue though is the question of influence pedaling. you heard newt gingrich say specifically i never ever lobbied for anybody including freddie mac and michele bachmann said look, you're relying on a technical definition of lobbying. the fact is you were an influence peddler. it is true, freddie mac did not hire newt gingrich because he was obscure college professor who didn't know anybody. they hired him because he was former speaker of the house. martha: how problematic is it for him going in this process? >> it continues to be. the romney campaign has been attacking gingrich daily on all sorts of things including freddie mac. they have a website called, unlee liableleader.com. they're playing all sorts of ads. romney himself has been criticizing him. romney decided to take a break with a huge national audience on fox. he decided not to be the

attack dog but they will start attacking today. martha: romney came in last night with a lot of confidence. we'll talkbout that a little bit later as well. byron, thank you so much. >> thank you, martha. bill: the future for fannie mae and freddie mac still unclear. here is a little bit of context on the recent troubles. fannie mae has reported losses in 16 of the last 17 quarters!. both fannie and freddie have used about the $168 billion from the u.s. treasury to cover losses related to bad loans made before the companies were seized. earlier this month, fannie mae said it would take $7.8 billion in u.s. government assistance after posting a major loss in the housing market. go figure that one out, huh? martha: a lot of taxpayer dollars to bail out those two organizations. i don't think that issue will go away. i think we'll hear more about it as the process progresses you missed any of the debate last night you can watch some of the highlights on our website.

foxnews.com. click on the headline on the homepage. that will take you to complete video coverage and clips last night and we'll show them to you here as well. bill: so they're always out there for you. also in a moment we continue to follow all the developments on the trail. candidates ramping up their attacks on the president as a brand new poll reveal whether or not he deserves, president obama deserves another term. we'll show it to you. martha: let's get back to the huge issue for today. did we avert another shutdown? we're awaiting a crucial vote on capitol hill to avoid a government shutdown but will it cost a trillion dollars? we'll talk about that. bill: new calls for attorney general eric holder to step aside. concerns growing over the botched gun-running sting known as "fast and furious". that came up last night. will you have to go? republicans fired up about that. here is rick perry, governor of texas. >> if i'm the president of the united states and i find out there is an operation like "fast and furious" and

my attorney general didn't know about it, i would have him resign immediately. or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. i can go back and do gardening with comfort. [ male announcer ] osteo bi-flex with 5-loxin advanced. shows improvement in joint comfort within 7 days. osteo bi-flex. the #1 doctor and pharmacist recommended brand.

>> so we are awaiting now, a critical vote in congress to try to avoid the possible government shut down. house and senate leaders apparently striking a tentative deal last night on a $1 trillion spending bill. still up in the air the deal to extend the payroll tax cut for 160 million americans. orrin hatch, ranking member of the senate finance committee. senator, good morning to you. >> well, good morning to you. bill: can we take another trillion? >> that's what they have done. it is at least a trillion dollars i believe. i'm not very happy about it. i think we need to really do everything we can to get spending under control. i'm afraid that's not the way to do it. but then again, you've got a president who wants to spend and wants to tax and it is very difficult to get this done without his approval.

bill: how will you vote, senator? >> i'm going to look at it. i haven't really, i haven't really examined it because i don't think anybody has a real copy of it right now. i'll look at it this morning to see where i am. bill: after that you've got this payroll tax extension. >> oh, yeah. bill: that has already been passed in the house. does it now appear that the keystone pipeline will go through? does it now appear that no one gets a tax hike? >> well, let's put it this way. i think they have written that language so that they have a 60-day period where the president can make up his mind on that particular project. but the president seems to want to play games with the project because his environmental extremists don't want it and yet all of his union people, including the teamsters do want it because it means 20,000 new highly paid jobs and also means an a leaving some of our dependency on foreign oil. my gosh, it makes sense. it is a shovel-ready project,

ready to go right now. the pipes are already bought. it just has to be done. all we need a president who will step up and start to lead and quit acting like some scared cat hiding in some closet in the white house. maybe that is not, maybe i shouldn't have said it that way but that's the what i feel like. bill: it is your opinion. >> that's what i feel like. bill: you think he is hing in a closet? >> i tell you this, he is not leading. that is one with of the problems. he is a very charming person. you can't help by like him. he is articulate, charismatic and doesn't lead. he gets pushed around by one or the other huge factions in the democratic party. in this case it is the environmental extremists. everybody knows we've got to do that project. everybody knows we need the oil. everybody knows it is a shovel-ready project. everybody knows that it is going to amount to thousands and thoses of jobs that we need right now. i mean what's the problem? bill: well maybe in the end you get that. you're up for re-election in

2012, right? >> right. bill: you know how spending is such a critical issue to folks back home in utah. >> you got that right. bill: you're looking at a trillion dollar bill that could be up for debate today on the floor of the senate. how are you going to reconcile that? >> i don't want to trash it right now because i haven't read it but i have to say this it's a really difficult thing for me to vote to something that ominous and frankly i'm very concerned about it. we've got, we've got to get some changes here in congress where we get more fiscal conservatives. we just don't have enough. i've been here now 35 years. we have never had a fiscal conservative majority in the senate. we always had three to six more moderate or liberal republicans who go with the all liberal democrats. it is really uphill for us. we have to change the country and get more conservatives up here. bill: we'll see what happens throughout the day today. senator hatch, thank you for your time. >> thank you. merry christmas. martha: merry christmas. orrin hatch. we have this fox news alert.

we're watching this story come across the wires. the man who reported child sex abuse claims to penn state football coach is now on the stand, mike mccreery. this is stunning stuff. this story is developing. bill: a heated hearing in the on the hill a billion dollars from a investment find. where did all the money go? congress putting tough questions to former head of that company, a former senator and governor to boot. >> we're talking about mf global, the company you were in charge of. what did that mean on reconciled differences. >> we were not in balance in segregated accounts. >> not in balls. >> could mean we didn't have control of collateral. it could mean we money that moved that shouldn't have moved.

martha: it is a big day in this penn state story this morning. major developments this hour in the penn state scandal. right now the man who reported the child sex abuse claims, mccreery, who you will see, he wakes in toward the end of this video. that might be him going by. he said he saw what happened in the shower and reported what jerry sandusky was doing to this young boy to two top athletic officials at penn state university who are the subject of this hearing today because they did nothing about it. david lee miller live at the courthouse in harrisburg with more. david, what do we expect today? what is going on in there? >> reporter: let me society the scene. these two administrators, martha, are accused of not doing anything about the alleged sexual abuse. furthermore they are each charged with perjury in this case. mike mcqueary is on the witness stand. he testified to the grand jury in 2010 that in 2002 he saw jerry sandusky

committing a sex act with a young boy in the showers on campus at penn state university. his testimony, we have a producer in the courtroom, he told the court, i looked in a mirror, this is in the locker room and shockingly and surprisingly saw jerry with a boy in the shouldwer and appeared was directly behind the boy and the kids hands were against the wall. i turned back in the locker. jerry heard me and in hastened state i opened my locker. it appears as expected that mike mcqueary is testifying to the alleged sexual abuse in the locker room. what is significant that the two administrators say they got a very different account from mike mcqueary. it was just horsing around. nothing sexual happened. that is why they're facing charges of per perjury. martha: mcqueary's credibility is what the whole case will come down to, right, david lee? that's right. he has come under a great deal of criticism because after his grand jury

testimony was made public in this grand jury report, e-mails that he reportedly circulated to friends had a very different account. he described telling the police what he saw and trying to intervene. furthermore, there is now a report that the day after the abuse, he told a family friend along with his father, a very different account of what took place in the locker room. no doubt defense attorneys will try to poke holes in his story, try to undermined his credibility. if they are successful it is possible at least the two administrators here could have the charges dropped but right now that does appear very unlikely. back to you. martha: david lee, what a story. what an awful, awful story. bill: difficult to listen to. martha: sure is. bill: new calls for the u.s. attorney general eric holder to step down over operation "fast and furious". which candidates last night came out against him? we will show you that from iowa, martha. martha: plus, the republican frontrunner, newt gingrich, challenged over his conservative credentials

last night. he says that is laughable. so why aren't conservatives laughing? >> sort of laughable to suggest that somebody who campaigned with ronald reagan and with jack kemp and had a 30-year record of conservatism is somehow not a conservative?

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martha: welcome back, everybody. attorney general eric holder facing massive criticism from the gop candidates at the fox news debate last

night. some calling for him to resign over the controversial "fast and furious" gun-running program. take a look. >> if i'm the president of the united states and i find out that there is an operation like fast and furious, and my attorney general didn't know about it, i would have him resign immediately. [applause] >> if he was the attorney general under me i would have him, i would fire him. i wouldn't have him resign. i would fire him. this is something he should have been aware of. something that should have stopped. something that shouldn't have started in the first place. martha: as you can tell that got a very positive reaction from the crowd last night. 75 lawmakers though in washington are calling for holder to step down. but our next guest is not actually on that list directly. he is congressman darrell issa. he is the chair of the oversight and government reform committee. congressman, welcome. good important to you. >> good morning. thanks for pointing out you our job is to investigate. the president's job to determine whether

eric holder has become too much of a distraction and whether or not justice would be better off without him. martha: what do you think what the candidates had to say on the issue last night? >> i may personally agree, this is somebody i would not have full confidence in. i would not keep on if i had control of that decision. but i think the more important point is that as this scandal continues to expand, as we continue to see problems at justice under his and other of his lieutenants leadership, you have to ask, isn't there a point at which real management changes need to happen? i've called for a housecleaning, a thorough housecleaning. i think up and down, both political appointees, in some cases career professionals clearly did what was wrong or failed to do what was right and brian terry's family is grieving today just one day past the anniversary of his killing. martha: yeah. what's the meaning of this 75 cosponsors on this house resolution of no confidence? does it really hold any weight whether or not

mr. holder stays or goes? >> well, it's not unheard of but it's a pretty high number here to get people to say that they really believe uniquely one person needs to go. remember on the hill there is lot of people would like housecleaning top to bottom of the cabinet but generally doesn't turn into this kind of a specific call for resignation or call for firing. and again, this investigation has continued for a number of months. we, our problem on the oversight committee is that we've been deliberately hampered. we've been lied to. false statements have been given to us and have to be revoked. -- retracted. we had to push and give subpoenas and demand individuals. that sort activity, lack of cooperation is much more what my committee is concerned with. normally we work in relative harmony with the administration to get to the bottom of things that go wrong. we work with the igs. eric holder and the justice is just one of the areas in which president obama has not been transparent, has not been willing to

cooperate in our obligation to know on behalf of the american people what has happened and whether it should be changed. martha: congressman darrell issa, thank you very much. good to talk to you this morning, sir. >> you're mess welcome. martha: we'll see you soon. bill: our debate is over and donald trump's debate will not happened. trump fired himself from a december debate hosting gig. some say they can win the election with or without his backing. here is utah governor jon huntsman, the former governor. >> people, neil, are coming around to finding that i am the consistent conservative in this race. they're coming around to find that i'm not going to pander, i'm not going to contort myself into a pretzel to please any audience i'm in front of and i'm not going to sign those silly pledges. you know what else, i'm not going to show up at a donald trump debate. bill: there is the ripple of applause but just a ripple. he told you a week ago, he said i'm not going to kiss donald's ripping.

martha: not kissing his ring. bill: or any other part of his anatomy. that was a great line. martha: i was reminded. it was supposed to be a laugh line. got a little bit of a laugh. bill: trump was going to host that for newsmax late december in iowa. it will not happen. trump is leaving open the possibility that he could run as an independent candidate. so that has been scratched. martha: catch all the latest 2012 developments on foxnews.com. all the latest details from the campaign trail. breaking headlines a click away, folks. foxnews.com, your front row seat for politics, bill hemmer. bill: certainly is. point and click, 24/7. now only on fox, an exclusive look inside the only u.s. facility responsible for putting together and taking apart nuclear weapons. kris gutierrez has seen it. he is live in dallas. where is this place and how do they keep a place like this secure? >> reporter: you bet, bill. up in amarillo, in the texas

panhandle just outside of am ma littlely -- amarillo. the facility is protected by 500 security police officers. some have amilitary background. some do not. look at the video here. they train in this $6 million, 360 degree attack simulator. this is state. art technology. computers put the officers through a wide range of scenarios, including potential attacks on the pantex facility. officers carry assault rifles and wear bulletproof vests and are trained for heavy combat. listen here. >> we're testing their ability to operate the weapons and communicate and resolve those problems. the weapons themselves function exactly like the real ones. >> reporter: that the facility, bill, we should point out has never had a major security breach. bill: that is good to know, chris. what do they do there precisely? >> reporter: since the 1970s you kind of hit on it. it is the only facility in the u.s. to build or

disassemble nuclear weapons. take a look. we have video of the exterior. it sits on 18,000 acres again up in the texas panhandle so it is massive. when a nuclear clear weapon is retired it must be completely disassembled. we didn't have access to the weapons for security and safety reasons. the weapons are complex with thousands of individual parts that must be completely ripped apart. listen here. >> a lot of it is literally we're sledding parts or segregates parts so they can't be put back together. there is classification associated with the part, makes it so unrecognizeable from a classification standpoint as well. >> reporter: so obviously the types of weapons and the quantity of weapons that actually move through that facility, bill, are top secret. bill: kris gutierrez, thank you out of dallas today. much good to see you. martha. martha: he says that he is a lot like ronald reagan in his beliefs but newt gingrich is still taking heat from conservatives who say that they don't believe

he is conservative enough. why he says the gipper would be happy with him. bill: stephen hayes on that in a moment. he is quickly becoming the most talked about football player in the country. that's tim tebow. so why are some high school students now suspended for this? >> just did it to honor tim tebow. seemed like a cool thing to do. he is a leader in every aspect on the field. >> i'm not upset and if the suspensions stand, they will take it like men. they're men. and it is just something i'm truly a little bit amazed that it has got to this point. ♪ that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm [ male announcer ] for half the calories -- plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. plus veggie nutrition. the best approach to food is tkeep it whole for better nutrition. that's what they do with great grains cereal.

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martha: the seattle police are releasing new video what they're calling the most violent local protest in more than a decade. wait until you see this this footage was taken during monday's occupy the port protest. here is a little bit. kind of get a sense what was going on in the street down

there the police say the demonstrators were throwing bricks, sharpened steel and bags of paint at the officers. you can see the streets are littered with debris. one officer was shown there with a bloody face. police arrested nearly a dozen people in this occupy the port effort. bill: on the cover of a magazine. back to our debate now. some on the stage challenging newt gingrich's record as conservative. gingrich laughing it off at times and reminding people with a quick history lesson. >> i've been around long enough i remember this exact time in 1979 when ronald reagan was running 30 points behind bill clinton, behind jimmy carter, and if people had said, gosh, electability is the number one issue they wouldn't have nominated him. what they said was, he believes what he is talking about, he has big solutions. he can get the economy growing. he understands foreign policy. and he's the person i want to have debate jimmy carter.

he carried more states against carter than fdr carried against herbert hoover in 1932. bill: how did the house speaker do in his arguments? stephen hayes, fox news contributor and contributing writer at "weekly standard." he is up early in iowa. welcome back here. >> how hi, bill. how are you? bill: i'm doing fine. how did he do on that defense? >> that specific question he did quite well. he gave people a history lesson. took him through thinks time in congress and ticked off a number of his accomplishments could be counted as conservative. ended each one saying that sounds pretty conservative. for his purposes that was a very good answer. i think the concern is, the reason people have been attacking him, not things that he did in office but things he did after he was in office. if you look what he was doing on the couch with nancy pelosi, these things that are showing up in ads all over the place here in iowa, those are concerns that his opponents are trying to raise. i think they're the concerns people of iowa have when you

ask them about newt gingrich. bill: come back in a moment. by and large you're right about that. but at the very beginning, santorum went after gingrich saying he had to contend with the conservative revolution that occurred in mid-'90s. is that a fair assessment on santorum's part? >> i think what santorum was saying there was a time when gingrich was speaker when a number of conservatives revolted against gingrich, you're not leading us the way we think you need to lead us. if you look results what he did after he was elected speaker it was a mixed record. he did manage to pass some of the reforms he was talking about about. if you look at overall spending levels, study by the cato institute examined exactly what speaker gingrich did and what congress did under speaker gingrich the results are more mixed. bill: you wrote something yesterday that caught my attention here. this is your blog, right? it was titled newt's disgrace? i want to read the last line make sure i'm attributing it to you in the last way.

if we measure negativity by degree rather than quantity, he, meaning gingrich, is responsible for the most egregious republican on republican attack on this cycle. i did not get a sense of that last night. what were you trying to say when you wrote that. >> well it's interesting he clearly came into the debate last night as the candidate who was going to be nice. he went out of his way several times, he opened the debate wishing everyone merry christmas. he went out of his way several times to say i'm not in the business of correcting mitt romney or governor romney. so i think he came with a strategy of playing nice and not allowing self to be baited into big conflicts or with other candidates. before the race, newt gingrich a few days before --. bill: before the debate. >> right, mitt romney's medicare proposal, before the debate he brought up mitt romney's medicare proposal did what i think really out of bound and over the line in terms of an attack. he raised the possibility that mitt romney's medicare

proposal would affect current beneficiaries or people going to be on medicare soon. it is totally false. it wasn't true when he said it. romney's campaign went out of his way several times to make clear his reform proposals would not affect seniors. gingrich raised it in a sort of a miss shajust way. we don't know the details of his plan are but if they affect current seniors and retirees that would be political uncomfortable for him. i think it was underhanded attack. bill: i have about 30 seconds, stephen. what is your sense in sioux city, where iowa is, iowa republicans are now in this process? >> every time you think you have a sense it changes. so you talk to a group of voters. then talk to somebody else and it changes. i think what that suggests that the race is incredibly fluid right now. you don't have an obvious person to say this person is gaining, this person is losing. gingrich seems to be losing momentum he built you up

over the past two weeks. there is lot of enthusiasm for ron paul. we'll see if that translates to votes. mitt romney had a good night last night. might have reassured people who weren't otherwise certain they would caucus for him. bill: stephen hayes. >> thanks, bill. bill: we'll see you soon. thank you. martha. martha: over a billion dollars seems to be just gone. former senator and new jersey governor jon corzine is in the hot seat having trouble answering serious questions about his former employer. congressman michael grimm was the person who leveled some of the toughest questions yesterday. we'll talk him live. there he is. bill: lawmakers offering a bipartisan approach to overhauling medicare. congressman paul ryan trying a new approach after being shot down earlier. we'll tell you why the white house is all fired up over this. >> the wyden-ryan proposal could over time cause the traditional medicare program to quote, wither on the vine. it would raise premiums forcing many seniors to

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bill: low approval ratings, some say, 9% for congress. oh. rick perry drawing big cheers at our debate last night, pushing his own proposal to get congress out of washington. have a listen. >> the idea that we have congress staying there as many days as they do and salary that they have, that is the reason i've called for a part-time congress. cut their pay in half. cut their time in washington in half. cut their staff in half. send them home. let them get a job like everybody else back home has and live within the laws of which they pass. [applause] bill: governor perry saying that congress should meet 140 days every other year. by the way that is how they do it back home in austin,

texas. martha: well this story continues to brew in washington because more than a billion dollars is missing in customer cash and former new jersey governor jon corzine, former senator as well as you know, is taking the heat from lawmakers on capitol hill saying he knew, really didn't know that much about the money transfer. take a listen to that all this. >> you had money that moved that shouldn't have moved. who other than you is it the treasury department within, that has the authority to move that money? >> yes, sir. >> have prior to this, this time that we're talking about now, the demise, the explosion here, were you ever, did you ever have unreconciled differences in your accounts. >> not to my knowledge. >> never? okay. that's good to hear. what's the first thing that would happen when they find out that there's something out of balance, something is unreconciled. would you gets a call as ceo from treasury? >> if it was serious imbalance, yes. martha: that was new york congressman michael grimm the he have joins us now.

congressman, welcome. sum up for everybody at home what you were trying to get at there. >> sure. well, i mean, there's no question that jon corzine was being evasive. he wasn't directly answering the questions. he was dancing around the issues and start talking about something somewhat relevant but wasn't really on point and it was really borne out of frustration. i decided to ratchet it up a little bit and ask, very, very pointed questions so he wouldn't have much wiggle room but i think it really exposed itself when i asked him about window-dressing. he became very, very uncomfortable because he had testified a few minutes prior to my asking him questions that they were not, that brought their leverage down. martha: right. >> under his control as ceo. but in fact, there was an article in "the wall street journal", a very prominent article in the "wall street journal" that said they were engaged in window-dressing and did it over seven quarters. basically they would sell their risky assets right

before they had to filed for the quarter. martha: right. >> and buy them right back. martha: make things look better. >> and to make the company look less risky. that is big part of it. when i started to ask him about that he got very, very uncomfortable and i would say showed signs of deception. martha: the reason this is getting so much attention because this is a man who was considered for treasury secretary. he was a united states senator. he was the head of goldman sachs, an extremely prominent, financial official as well as government official as well. and senator as i said. so the question is, and this is a phrase that he's using about all this he said i never authorized anyone to misuse customer money. for folks who are catching up on this at home, the question is whether or not they used customer assets to sort of cover their backside for lack of a better way of looking at it. >> sure. martha: when things started to go south with their european debt investments which everybody knows has been a very risky investment lately. that to me was at the heart

of this. did he authorize them to use customer money to cover that bet? >> right. i think as the investigation has borne out, based again on my interview of jon corzine i think we'll find out that he did. martha: why do you say that? >> well, it is very simple. he did not admit to knowing about "the wall street journal" article about window-dressing. there is only one reason not to tell the truth about that. and that is because he has other things to hide. so he doesn't want to go down a road of starting to tell some truths. he just did a blanket, i don't know. i don't recall. i'm not sure. i didn't do this. so when he is denying like that, some of those small things that lead up to the big things. martha: we'll see. >> why would he deceive us on knowing whether the wall street article came out? martha: that was interesting moment. huge "wall street journal" story. based on our company you will probably know what is in it. thank you the sir. bill: we're awaiting mitt romney to speak in iowa, 18 days to go before the caucus. former governor mike huckabee won iowa three

years ago. who does huckabee think has the cred to win this time around. martha: a good guy to ask. >> new day in american politics just like a new day is needed in american government. tonight it starts here in iowa, but it doesn't end here. no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up! aw, come off it mate! geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance.

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martha: republican candidates battle to be the party's nominee. seven candidates took the stage in the debate last night. it's the last one before the state's first in the nation contest. that is how we got rolling on this friday morning with a brand-new hour of americ "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bel bill hemmer. many came back to the team of going after the man in the white house. >> i think anybody who has been here 25 years, who has family here, family supporting him. anybody would be better than barack obama, anybody would be

great in the neck administration. martha: 18 days to go before iowa caucuses. steve is with us. they may have helped themselves during this debate. >> they did, it was surprising for those that thought it was going to be a super contentious debate. all of the predictions were wrong. the one candidate most aggressive would have been michelle bachmann. she went after newt gingrich a couple of times with fred remcand iran. also went after ron paul on iran. by and large it was a friendly debate. lots of compliments, lots of slings and arrows at the president not at each other. including this one from mitt romney. >> this economy has every potential to continue to lead the world. our president thinks america is in decline. it it is if he's present, it's

not if i'm president. phraud. >> you heard the response there. a lot of candidates are trying to give a close argument understanding this. that decision time is near and that during the hall day season a whole lot of campaign chatter is probably not going to brick through when people are unwrapping presidents on christmas day. so if you're going to make the argument, i look presidential, that was a good day. martha: he went in there very confident last night, that was clearly probably his strongest moment he showed there. he got a lot of positive feedback for that. what about gunning r- newt gingrich who continues to be the front run err? what was the reaction to his permanent form answer. >> pretty good. he got a pretty rousing ovations from the crowd which was filled with republicans waiting to hear something they liked.

they liked his response to the keystone pipeline, how he said the president picked environmentalists over jobs. >> the president states -- i'm using mild words here, utterly i'm going to veto a tax cut so we will kill american jobs, make us more vulnerable to the irans and make n no sense to the average american. >> he wanted to make sure that he didn't get too far out of line so he was editing his speech. they wanted to be nice for the iowa citizens making the choices. martha: we heard that from some of the feed backs in the groups as well. steve, thank you very much. steve brownout in souix city.

bill: by the way, we just showed you mitt romney in souix city, iowa. romney is heading to south carolina. it comes third in the order of january. we want to show you to give you a sense what issues are likely important in states like iowa versus south carolina. the deeper the red the more trouble you're in, the lighter the red you're doing so kay, the better green you are, the better off your state is doing. in iowa right now, if you go back over the past three years, unemployment rate in iowa 6.0% that is well below the national average, but if you pop out of iowa and you start to wonder what is sergeant for the peopl is significant for the people in iowa, the economic picture in south carolina is much different. since americans voted in 200,836,000 jobs have been lost. watch what happens on the unemployment indicate?

10.5%, that is well above the national average of 10.6%. watch the different themes change as romney goes down to south carolina a and we that being the candidates as they go forward. 18 days to "what. that is the one to circle on the calendar. martha: yes it is. mitt romney is speaking now, he's on stage, his wife is there with him as well. we'll be listening to this and we'll bring you any highlights there that as they come along. you can -lt also watch it live on foxnews.com. in the debate last night mitt romney has been criticized for his private equity career, which he admits sometimes involved job lossest but he says a lot of job creation. >> in the real world some things don't make it. i believe i've learned from my successes and failures. the president i'd say how do you do running gwe general motors.

and he'll say i did things to shut down businesses. martha: he made a strong effort to make that argument last night. coming up we'll have few polls on whether americans want to see president obama reelected and also which republicans fare the best in the one-to-one match up with the president. we'll talk about that with a great panel coming u as well. bill: rick perry had one of the most talked about comments saying that he hopes to be the tim tebow of the iowa caucus. he's a very popular quarterback. >> i hope obama and i debate and i will get there early. and we will talk about our differences, which is great. let me tell you, i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. bill: he has been saving you have that line. he's known for kneeling in

prayer during games, he's led his team to seven victories in the last eight games. perry is hoping for some of that magic coming in iowa. on sunday tom brady and the new england patriots are threu playing tim tebow in denver. martha: you think they are going to get killed. bill: i didn't say that, no, no no,. martha: you can watch all the details from the campaign trail on foxnews.com. bill: what you talking about, woman? martha: i don't know i thought you said that. bill: a deal on capitol hill. we are awai awaiting a vote to avoid a government shut down. is that spos?

possible? what is the latest on the payroll tax holiday, mike, where does that stand. >> reporter: we've got even a couple of interesting updates from speak of the house boehner boehnejohn boehner saying the house would vote on a resolution to keep the house funded, for the $1 trillion package to be finalized. the tension on the hill is over. the payroll tax holiday, republicans are adamant that any payroll tax holiday package has to include the keystone pipeline project. they say it creates tens of thousands of jobs. it has to be in any package that goes forward. harry reid is saying, plan b i could do the two-month extension ever the payroll tax poll day so people don't see their taxes go up over the holidays. republicans are saying not so

fast we want to see the final language before we agree to that. bill: they say the jet fuel is starting to be fired up over there at airport. >> reporter: miracles could april. bill: he's got a long day ahead of himn the hill. martha: taking another stab at government healthcare reform, this time house budget committee chairman paul ryan says he has sue tphaoeb unique support on both sides of the isles. >> we want to show that a government execution is out there. we want to show that a bi-partisan consensus is forming and can be formed, and so that's why it's important to do it sooner rather than later. bill: once again very interesting. the white house is not on board with ryan's by part son plan. what does the obama administration have against it? bill: mike huckabee knows a thing or two about winning big in iowa.

which candidate does the governor think has the potential to do the same 18 days puerto ric18 days from now? he's here live to tell us. martha: students sus tended. suspended. they take a tebow, and to god. tell us what you think about it. bill: i'll tell you after the commercial, huh? why settle for a one-note cereal? ♪ more, more, more... get more with honey bunches of oats 4 nutritious grains come together for more taste, more healthy satisfaction. get more with honey bunches of oats.

bill: breaking news, thi could be significant. the scc, the security and exchange commission suing the former ceo's of fannie mae and

fred lee mc, the they allege they misled inc investors. between 2002 and 2008. we'll gauge throughout the day what impact this might be on somebody perhaps like newt gingrich who was doing work in the middle part of that decade for both of these entities, or perhaps a not at all. the target of this suit has nothing to do with gingrich, it has everything to do with the ceo's who were telling people how table these were when they turned out to be nothing. martha: the white house slamming a new plan to overall immediate tmedicare. this is a bi-partisan effort and the includes a familiar case.

republican house budget chairman paul ryan who has had tons of attention, someone people hoped would run tore presiden tore president. he wanted to privatize medicare. he got a lot of heat for that. they said he wanted to end medicare as we know it. he is partnered now with oregon senator ron yden. the obama administration's response has not been overly receptive. >> it could over time cause the traditional medicare program to quote, wither on the fines. it could force many seniors to leave traditional medical care and join private plans. martha: we have the senior editor of a magazine. >> what ryan and senator wyde

next have done are outside all the rules of washington. if you're within an election you don't do anything to fix a problem because you might create controversy and lose some votes. that is a brave move by both gentlemen, and the white house is not happy. they say give us a dozen years and medicare is going to go bust, that's what the action ooh airies say. in 12 years you take medicare, medicaid for people plus interest on the debt it will eat up everything. martha: he came up with a huge effort to cut the budget, one of the few people who was very specific how he would do that. here he is once again with a very specific plan. he said you didn't like my other medicarelan, he says so let's try a life dent way. let's have medicare still exist but we'll give seniors and awful this won't kick in until 2022

and wouldn't affect anybody over the age of 5 a right now. we'll give them a choice, they can pick medicare or a private plan and put them into popl situation. >> it's actually working right now. even though it's a small part of what they are proposing, we have medicare advantage. 24% of medicare patients currently belong to medicare advantage. it offers other things like checkups, and gym memberships and things seniors want. martha: the president as heart of his healthcare plan cut $500 billion from medicare. >> and gave it to medicaid patients who are the people who are going to get the new health insurance benefits. martha: one of the biggest issues is politics as well. it diffuses the issue of the republicans action the party of

no. >> so far there hasn't been a long line of people who are joining up with senator wyden. the democrats have two words for him and they are not happy birthday. he's from oregon, not from a southern state. he has a long reputation, he started in politics as an advocate for seniors. i think over time especially as the presidential election goes into the background in 2013. this is that righted under the burrow administration. they proposed something similar to this in the 1990, because of the scandal and controversy it never happened. bill clinton was almost on board. martha: very similar to the romney plan. >> very similar. bill: we have called paul ryan's office and hope to get him on tv to explain all this.

newt gingrich taking some heat in the debate last night, some heat you could say that he knows how to get things done in washington. >> as speaker, one of the reasons some people aren't happy with some of my leadership is he actually worked out things with bill clinton to get welfare reform, tax cuts and four balanced budgets signed because you continue get anything done otherwise. leadership matters immensely. bill: a former contractor who worked with gingrich on a contract for america is here to tell us why he thinks newt gingrich is right for the white house. martha: new numbers after this. who people would like to see in the white house, president obama or somebody else? [ ron orsini ] osteo bi-flex has been incredible for me,

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martha: it's 22 minutes past the pourbgs and the barefoot bandit is headed to court today. he's exphrebgted to plead guilty to 30 felony charges, including burglary. a 20-year-old accused of stealing planes and boats and cars and breaking into vacant homes, sometimes leaving little love notes along the way. barry bonds is set to be sentenced today for obstruction of justice and perjury. the former outfielder could serve up to 15 months in prison. and a blanket of snow in northern arizona as we get close to christmas, the flagstaff area got more than a foot. the snowstorm started on tuesday. no sign of any of the white stuff around here, bill. bill: zero, it's like 68 degrees in new york yesterday. we were walking around in shorts and t-shirts. loved it. martha: i don't like it. bill: republican frontrunner newt gingrich took his share of shots from ow opponents last

night. have a look and listen here. >> over $1.6 million. frankly, i am shocked listening to the former speak err of the house because he's defending the continuing practice of fred tee mcand fannie mae. >> he has a different definition of the private sector than i have. it's a government sponsored enterprise. >> when he was the speaker of the house i had conservatives knocking down by door because i was the effective advocate for the pins that they believed in. bill: fred grand deis a former republican congressman from iowa who served with gingrich in the house. sir good morning to you out there in iowa. >> good morning. bill: if our viewers look very closely he was also gofer on the love boat. >> i'm supporting newt gingrich because i think he's got the

leadership component. you ran the little clips attacking him. we are calling it shoot the newt, he's the wack-a-mole. get used to it there will be a lot more of it as long as he continues to surge in the polls. we go back, talk to what happened, what hurt, what helped and that is something that i think the speaker is prepared to talk about whenever people bring it up. bill: the governor in iowa is a republican too, and he carries a lot of clout in the hawk-eye state as you know. yesterday he was quoted as saying thing about gingrich, questioning whether or not he had the discipline and focus and he concluded that by saying i don't know. why would that be do you believe? >> well i don't know, he actually never served with newt gingrich, and newt gingrich is

being portrayed as very volatile. i don't think the debates have shown that gingrich. if anything he has looked somewhat modulated, wise, and that's the reason i think he's doing so well. a lot of people who thought they new newt gingrich. by the way i include myself in that. i had my innings with him when i was a member of congress. we look at a guy who has mellowed with age and has the wisdom voters are looking for. bill: gingrichs a big man, he can stand on stage with anybody. he has broad shoulders and thick skin. why do you say you're saddened to see the way other republican colleagues are going off him. why the word saddened? >> i'm saddened because i think at this point we have to start playing team ball. it always amazed we when we were

preparing for the republican caucus ho how we prepared for combat. whether it's newt or mitt romney or one of the other contestants there last night i think it's time to start not volunteering criticisms of the potential republican tomorrow knee. nominee. give the guy a break, this is a marathon, and what they don't need is to put up hurdles along the way. bill: thank you for your time today. it's good to see you. >> you bet. bill: in time you can wear those shorts again, but i don't think december in souix city is that time, fred grand dethank you for your time. martha: the caucuses are just 18 days away and the first contest in the 1211 season that could end the campaign or give it

fresh air. just ask mike huckabee. >> a new day is needed in american politics just like in new government, and tonight it starts here in iowa, but it doesn't end here, it goes all the way through the other states and ends at 1600 pennsylvania avenue one year from now. [applause] martha: that with us a grit night for him, it's not exactly how it worked out, but we're glad we have him here with us at fox news. he'll tell us who he thinks will win in iowa. bill: i wonder if he'll channel his inner tebow. these guys are paying for that. do you see this video? was the punishment for these students too tough? tell us what you think. foxnews.com/america live.

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bill: back to our breaking news. this will make headlines now. hraoeurpblearning out of washington, the securities and exchange commission the fcc charging six former executives of fannie and fred tkaoerbgs the top executives, including the two form ceo's. they arcuesed of fraud over subprime mortgages sold into vesters between 2002 and 2008. in the suit the allegation is that these executives misled

investors about the exposure we had to risky mortgage-backed securities. which caused the mortgage industry to go into free fall in 2007 and go deeper in 2008. as a country we have yet to pull ourselves out of that mess. now the fcc taking action. martha: a testy exchanges are change between presidential candidates ron paul and michelle bachmann's during last night fox news debate. they clashed over iran and the best way to deal with a nuclear threat it may pose. they disagreed on a validity of a u.n. report that says iran could have nuclear weapons very soon. >> the greatest danger is that we will have a president that will overreact, that we will soon bomb iran. >> nothing could be more dangerous than the comments that we just heard. >> all right, 30 seconds. >> there is no u.n. report that

said that, it's totally wrong on what you just said. >> ao it's the iaee report. >> that is not true. they produced the information that led you to believe that, but they have no evidence, there's been no enrichment. >> and if we agree with that, if we agree with that the united states people could be at risk. martha: very interesting back and forth on that. so fall is known of course for having strong isolationist views when it comes to foreign policy and that gritee sets him apart from the rest of the field and one thing a lot of people say prevents him from increasing his fan base out there. bill: both bachmann and paul have a good ground game in iowa. we'll see how they finish. gingrich defended his position to subpoena judges for controversial decisions. gingrich pwhraoes courts have

become grotesque lee dictatorial. >> there is an entire paper at newt.org. i've been working on this since 2002 when the ninth circuit court said one nation under god was unconstitutional and i thought if judges thought one nation under god were wrong they shouldn't be on the court. [applause] bill: there was at least one other candidate on stage agreeing with that, congresswoman michelle bachmann, if we give to the courts the right to make paul then the people will have lost their representation, end quote from bachmann. martha: and rick santorum taking a shot at newt gingrich on his record as a conservative and his personal life. >> we need someone strong in their political and personal life to go out and contrast themselves with the president and make him the issue in this campaign, that's why i iowa citizens are beginning to respond, they like the fact that i've been there, met with them

and believe in them to lead this country. martha: rick santorum tried to make it into a different tier last night. he says he is hoping to catching fire in iowa. to do that he has been to all 99 counties in iowa working hard at it. if you missed any of the debate you can watch the highlights on our website go to foxnews.com, click on the line on the home page. that will take you to the complete video. bill: a major shakeup affecting the largest mortgage holder in the country. fanny mae and freddie mac, a lawsuit just announced out of washington d.c. where there is a suit now being brought against six executives, including the two ce organizations. peter barnes from the fox business network broke this story moments ago. he's with us now. lay it out, peter. >> reporter: bill, these are lawsuits against former executives of fanny mae and

freddie mac, six of them, three from each company including the former ceo of fanny mae, dan mudd and the former ceo of freddie mac dick siren here over subprime mortgages over things they wrote in 200 fix, 2007, 2008. these executives made lots of money. the securities and exchange commission now suing them and saying basically they defrauded investors here and they say that the fannie and freddie executives told the world that their subprime exposure because substantially smaller than it really was. these were material misstatements of the company's finances back at that time and these executives will be held accountable for perpetuating half truths and misrepresentations. bill: if you go back to september of 1999, which is

before this lawsuit alleges here, that was when congress changed the rules for the lending practices of fannie and freddie and it was signed into law. now, did they have anything to do with that, or were they just operating within the parameters of what the law allowed them to do? or rather, is what you're reporting, is that the way they told people, or what they told people about the financial security, or the stability of those investments? is that what this suit alleges. >> it's the latter. you're right about the changes that congress ordered for fannie and freddie and their missions. these were executives who came after those changes and ran the company after that, but they were the ones who got and went forward with getting the companies inch some the subprao*eupl game because everybody else was getting into it. fanny and fed dewer fed freddie

were missing out on it and wanted to get into it. bill: you're saying they are getting sued for the sale pitch they gave. >> correct. they said we're safe, okay and we're going to be good mortgages. guess what, that didn't push out as you know. bill: good reporting. thank you, peter barnes from fox business network breaking that news. martha: i wonder what took them so long. you've got to wonder about barney frank and other people in the government who were always saying that both of these entities were sable at the time. that's a big story. we'll tonight to stay and top of that. new polling just in, who voters want to see in the white house, as the candidates take jabs at the man who lives there right now. >> how did you do when you were running general motors as the president you took it over? gee you closed down factories and dealerships. he'll say i did that to save the business.

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martha: yearee back in "america's newsroom." there is a new poll out this morning that shows president obama's re-election bid facing a bit of an uphill palt. mor uphill battle. more than half saying the president does not deserve a second term, 5 52%. that is something all the republican candidates can agree on. i am joined by mary katherine ham, fox news contributor, and juan williams, a fox news contributor. will come to both of you. mary catherine, who do you think stacked up the best last night. >> i think newt and mitt held

their own. newt kept his temper, mitt dispensed with some of the pee the peevishness he's had before. romney has not been able to pull it over line when it comes to real life and connecting with voters in many elections. gingrich has the downside of being a bit unpredictable. that is the question people are weighing. martha: i think you're right about the peevishness left at the door by mitt romney. he was always given kudos for being very presidential. there was the thin skin period in the middle couple of debates, and last night he appeared to be back on the money with the presidential demeanor. i want to take a look at some of where that comment is coming from take a look. >> this economy has every potential to continue to lead the world. our president thinks america is in decline. it is if he's president, it's

not if i'm president. this is going to be an american century. [applause] martha: everyone seemed to think that was a business moment for him. >> i think that is his best moment and the calling card nor going into the rehrebgs, mart that. the bigger issue for him is trying to capture conservative passion, convince people he's the true conservative in the race and not newt gingrich. newt gingrich last night had really good moments when he was tacking about the pipeline, when he was talking about the courts, boy he fired up the fraud, and i think that's why we've seen taupe passiontea party passions looking at newt gingrich. i think last night newt gingrich held his own. i don't think there is any loss for him coming out of this debate. negativity, all the criticisms of him, the baggage, the attacks by michelle bachmann, i don't think those had impact in the debate. they may subsequently by direct

mail, phone calls, the attacks coming from the republican establishment but not last night. martha: it's interesting, newt is pushing this lincoln-douglas tile debate thing. he knows that this is something that really inspires gop voters. they would love to see him go up against the president. would he ever get what he wants in that regard if he were to win the nomination. >> i don't think obama is going to give him 21 hours of debate. and obama could probably talk for 21 haours on his own. i don't think he'll give him that opportunity. they are seeing newt, a guy that can make a compelling argument, it has its down sides when he can talk a little much and go off course. we're going to stop tab being right now. we have mike huckabee here. juan, thank you. bill: which is not always easy for us to do. jenna lee is coming up right

now. jenna: we have a break in the case of the long island serial killer. ten bodies found and no idea who did it. we definitely need to get a closer look. i went out to the scene of the crime to long island. i'll show you exactly where the bodies were found, what it looks like and show you why it is still an mystery. dr. bad even will join us on set. congresswoman michelle bachmann came owl swinging last night. we will he'll talk to her about her strategy going forward. bill: she is holding hopes high in iowa. see knew about ten minutes. thank you. en tim tebow gets on one knee he's praising god, but when kids do it not everybody is amused. their punishment for taking a knee in the stool hallway. >> i thought it would be funny, an inside joke, to start tebowing in the hallways. there was no harm.

bill: >> i wasn't sure that i would ever be able to love a state as much as i love my home state of arkansas. but tonight i love iowa a whole lot. [applause] bill: he's got a knack for saying all the right things. that was mike huckabee after winning iowa back in 2008. who wins and what wins when you look at the average in the top three of the field. mike huckabee, good morning to you. i was in that room with you. >> it was pretty electric. >> it was a magical moment for you. i could get that sense from you. you won in iowa because you appealed to the strong grass

roots evangelical voter in iowa. i don't know if that's what wins this time around, because what i'm hearing is that people are coming out because they want more fiscal responsibility. is it a or b now. >> it's both. it's not that the social conservatives and value voters have disappeared. they are very passionate about the issues of life and marriage and that is important to them. they are not going to vote for someone who is not clear on those issues. that's why even though jobs and the economy will eclipse everything else in terms of the focus, it toes not mean that the value voters have disappeared. bill: and they are still significant. unemployment rate in iowa is low, 6%. 40 other states would take that rate right now. this is what scott rasmussen found in iowa yesterday. in iowa alone among republicans, 52% say today they could still change their mind. >> yep. bill: what in the world explains

that 18 days away. >> no one candidate has so captured them, has made them say i have a yard sign in my front yard, my sticker is on my car, and i'm going to vote for my guy no matter what. two things could happen, it could be the lower turn out which means the candidate who has the intensity of voters win. that's when ron paul supporters will surprise people. rick santorum will splice som surprise people. i'm not saying he's going to win. bill: there are a lot of people who listen to you. will you endorse. >> no. if i walked into the voting booth right now i'm not sure i would vote for. they are all friends, i know them all. every one of them i think would be a better president from my spe perspective than the one i have now and i'm going to support whoever is out there.

i haven't decided that one of them is head and shoulders above the others and that i'm ready to close the deal. bill: we'll bring you back next week. check out his ch show every we can night on fox. martha: they were just imitating an athlete, tim tebow, but did they go too far? after the break. there he is, poised to discover plum amazins, the amazing alternative to raisins and cranberries with more fiber, less sugar, and a way better glycemic index. he's clearly enjoying one of the planet's most amazing superfruits. hey, keep it down mate, you'll wake the kids. plum amazins. new, from sunsweet.

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martha: a group student athletes in new york, long island, actually, were suspended for tebowing. down on one knee. >> just like the denver broncos quarterback, tim tebow. this is how it appeared in new york state. >> did it to honor tim tebow. seems like a cool thing to do. he is a leader in every aspect on the field. i just don't think we did anything that warranted a suspension. jon: they were suspended. didded cool go too far.

andrew napolitano, fox senior judicial analyst. >> the young man says we did it this honor tim tebow. if he said we did this because we wanted to thank god for our victories or pray to god for a victory, then the behavior would be almost absolutely protected under the first amendment as the free exercise of religion. so if we assume this was a religious act, the school was wrong to interrupt it. if we assume it was an act of defiance or an honor of tim tebow the man, there is time, place and manner for it and the hallway is not one of them. martha:, judge, martha here. >> yes,. martha: that. martha: i look at video. i understand the school's argument. it was going on and on. they were blocking the hallway. people need to get to class. sound like it became more than a tribute. sound like it became a distraction. >> it likes like it was a distraction. but but if it was truly an exercise of religious freedom. the school can not interfere

with it unless it materially interferes with the school's ability to teach. if it was cool thing to do as the man says in the clip or honor tim tebow the man, or rather than honor the person tim tebow was honoring it is not protected by the first amendment. depends what is in their brains and why we have judges and trials to find out what people's true intentions are. martha: find out what is in our brains. bill: i would hate to be at pep rally in that school in riverhead, new york. martha: merry christmas, judge. speaks to how much of a cultural phenomena this guy has become. bill: in serious way. we asked this question online. we want to know what you thought. should students be suspended for tebowing. right now 92% say know. about 1200 votes cast in the past hour and a half. thanks for logging on. martha: i think i will vote when i get back to my office. it might have been too harsh.